The Best Ambiguous Endings in Movie History

Ambiguous endings and twist endings sometimes, but not always, go hand in hand. Audiences may expect to sit down to a movie — no matter the genre — and get a full story that has a definitive conclusion. But some of the greatest filmmakers are less interested in telling a full story than one that might leave you hanging on the edge of your seat, never to know the answers to every question being raised. Not every ambiguous ending works, but here are the 20 best of them, endings that not only inspired feverish theorizing among fans but ironically felt quite appropriate even without being complete conclusions.

(Warning: Some SPOILERS follow, inasmuch as you can spoil something that is unclear and open to multiple interpretations.)